Oct 7, 2011

Being Nice and Being Enabling Are Not the Same Things (well, maybe sometimes at the Anglican Communion)

¨Although a person may tolerate and learn to accept and live with abuse, neglect and disrespect, that acceptance is not a function of kind congeniality or of gracious tolerance. It may be an illness in-and-of itself. We call it co-dependency.

Getting along and being pleasant are two of the core characteristics of what is generally meant when we describe a person as being congenial. When these behaviors and attitudes persist, however, in the face of abusiveness, neglect or disrespect, they may not be elements of congeniality at all but rather of what we call co-dependency.¨ David A Reinstein

Our Unity in Christ: In Support of the Anglican Covenant

An Apologetic Series

¨People are sometimes surprised that I support the proposed Anglican Covenant because there is a widespread belief that the crafters of the Covenant intend to stop new developments in the Communion. Similarly, many Anglicans believe that if there had been a Covenant 25 years ago, we would not have both sexes elected and consecrated to the episcopate. (“We would not have women bishops,” they say, without speaking of “men bishops.” Bishop is not a gender-exclusive noun, and women is not an adjective.)

Are YOU activating the disease to PLEASE Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, when validating the punitive Anglican Covenant?

The real question to consider, as we weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed Anglican Covenant, is whether it would help or hinder inter-Anglican communication. The 20th and 21st centuries have restructured the way that communication happens across the world. As I write this, the rumor has begun that Rowan Williams will step down as the Archbishop of Canterbury next year. Every sort of media, from blogs to newspapers, speculates on who will succeed Archbishop Rowan, although Lambeth Palace has declined to comment on the rumor...read more, by Bishop Victoria Matthews HERE

¨My friend Jim Beyer has written a great response to a post by Bishop Victoria Matthews' of New Zealand¨Mutha+

Peter Arnett, a legendary TV and print news reporter famously wrote:

“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it,” a United States major said today. He was talking about the decision by allied commanders to bomb and shell the town, regardless of civilian casualties, to rout the Vietcong. [“Major Describes Move,” New York Times, February 8, 1968.]

It awakens my sense of irony to note that Mr. Arnett is a New Zealander. I have no idea if he is an Anglican, but his description of the US (failed, we now all know) strategy in Vietnam is apt for the defense of the Anglican Covenant mounted by Peter Carrell and his boss, Bishop Victoria Matthews. They stand willing destroy the communion to save it. While Matthews’ defense of the Covenant achieved only incoherence, Carrell peels down the layers and give us clarity. The picture is really, really ugly...¨ please read it all, by Jim Beyer, HERE

¨In American parlance especially in the South the term 'nice' is what boys and girls are taught from first breath. 'Nice' becomes the be-all-and-end-all of all social engagement. Nice is more important than truth, 'nice' is more important than kindliness. It is more important than agreement, compassion, meaningful exchange, or even love. 'Nice' is a plastic expression of pleasantry that usually masks integrity...¨ HERE by Mutha +

Hi Mimi, Thanks for correcting mistakes--now, if we could just get a few folks to think about outcomes instead of appearances the Anglican Communion would be a far healthier place--especially for heterosexual and LGBT Anglicans throughout the Anglican Communion...the big picture is far more difficult to ¨take in¨ than the navel gazing close up.

Sunday, 20th March, 2011 OFFICIALS and workers of the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity were on Monday morning stunned when they were bl...

REAL HERO/REAL LIFE: Bishop John Shelby Spong

“I was simply interpreting a rising consciousness,” he said. “Whether it was race or women or homosexual people, the issue was always the same: fighting against anything that dehumanizes a child of God on the basis of an external characteristic.” Bishop John Shelby Spong (click on his photo)

¨Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?¨ Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu